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| Sandro Botticelli, Madonna of the Magnificat, late 1480s. Private collection |
The Getty Museum is showing a version of Botticelli's
Madonna of the Magnificat as a loan from a private collection. This is the painting that
Christie's auctioned from the collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen in Nov. 2022 (for $48 million). At the time, some Getty watchers wondered why the wealthy institution didn't buy it. Measuring just under 25 inches across, it's a half-size reduction of
a famous painting in the Uffizi. Six studio replicas of the Uffizi picture are known, but only this one is considered to be largely autograph.
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| Detail of Madonna of the Magnificat |
Also on view in the Getty's Renaissance galleries are Lucas Cranach the Elder's Adam and Eve, on loan from the Norton Simon Museum and making their first public appearance after a three-year conservation treatment. Among the challenges was the warped limewood support, riddled with wormholes and perhaps bullet holes. The new frames are thick enough to allow the panels to curve with time and climate. A missing part of Adam's head was reconstructed from a very similar Adam and Eve at that big box store of European painting, the Uffizi.
Adam and Eve will be on view at the Getty Center through Apr. 21, 2024. The Botticelli is on loan for six months.
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder, Adam and Eve, about 1530. Norton Simon Museum |
Comments
https://www.artic.edu/collection?q=adam+and+eve&artist_ids=Lucas+Cranach%2C+the+Elder
Possibility #2: The owner wants some insurance relief. When on loan to a museum, the museum's insurance covers the painting against theft and damage.
--- J. Garcin
Also, at $48M, it would have been have added much more to the collection than the $30M time share. The new President, Katherine Fleming, really needs to do more for the Getty and the city and build the collection now that she's had her first year to settle in.